Dukakis speaks for Women’s Fund By Jana Eisenberg Olympia Dukakis, seventy-eight this month, is an Academy Award-winning film actor, but Hollywood fame hasn’t kept her from pursuing her love of theater. She is also passionate about women’s and girls’ issues. This is what will bring her to Buffalo on June 3, as the keynote speaker at the inaugural Western New York Women’s Fund Signature event. I spoke with Dukakis as she multitasked during a rehearsal break at a New York City theater. On her cell phone, she talked around a hummus-and-avocado sandwich that she was lunching on at 3 p.m. In typical Dukakis style, she brusquely yet compassionately told me what was what. “This fund reaches Buffalo and Western New York women, to relieve their terrible burdens and strains,” she said. “Women live precariously, with financial difficulties and other horrible situations. Did you know that close to 50 million people in this country have no health care?” In materials for the event, which Buffalo Spree is sponsoring, Fund director Brigid Doherty concurs: “Buffalo is one of the country’s most impoverished cities. Thirty percent of Buffalo families live below the poverty line; most are headed by single mothers. The WNY Women’s Fund focuses on programs that give women and girls opportunities to become economically self-sufficient.” Dukakis is an activist, wife, mother, grandmother, and film and stage actor. How does she fit it all in? “I fit it in like I am right now!” she said, chewing her sandwich. “I said, ‘OK, it’s not going to take a whole hour to eat, so I’ll do the interview.’ What happens to women and children matters a great deal to me.” She says her life is not complicated, and she obviously makes time for what’s important. “I had a wonderful time a few weeks ago; I took my son and my ten-year-old granddaughter to see Our Town. Afterwards, I bought her a copy of the play, to introduce her to something that was part of my world—and now could be a part of hers.” A lovely thing to be able to do, and something that Olympia Dukakis thinks every woman and girl should have the chance to do. The Signature Event will highlight tributes to women and girls, which are provided by the public. Tributes may be posted free at the WNY Women’s Fund website, www.wnywomensfund.org. Event attendees' tributes submitted by May 6 will be published and distributed at the event. Individual tickets are $100. To purchase, or for more information, contact the Western New York Women’s Fund at 887-2621 or www.wnywomensfund.org. SUBSCRIBE NOW Back to the Table of Contents Back to Top